Gylfi delivers Silva service
AT LONDON STADIUM JOSE MOURINHO once taunted Manuel Pellegrini when he came back with his Malaga side to face Real Madrid.
“If Real get rid of me I will go to a big club in the Premier League or Serie A,” was his barb to his Bernabeu predecessor.
Such has Mourinho’s stock been damaged by the events of the past week, culminating in this abject performance against Pellegrini’s West Ham, you cannot help but wonder who would actually take him next.
His days at United appear numbered.
Even by his own standards, Mourinho surpassed himself in the number of noses he put out of joint in his own dressing room on Saturday. One: Alexis Sanchez was made to travel to London then not even put on the bench.
Two: Jesse Lingard was nowhere to be seen, another victim of the United manager exercising his “options”.
Three: He went with an extra centreback but left Ivory Coast defender Eric Bailly on the bench in place of inexperienced midfielder Scott McTominay out of position.
Four: At the first sign of things going wrong he took off Paul Pogba. Again.
Five: Then he used his press conference to criticise Anthony Martial for failing to accept any defensive duties and even sneered at anybody who had called for him to be selected in the first place.
Add Phil Jones, who he threw under the bus with Bailly after the midweek defeat by Derby, and this is a dressing room that Mourinho is not so much losing as giving away in instalments.
When he needs a performance from his players to put all the jitters to bed, is it any surprise West Ham were in front after five minutes and dominating?
Felipe Anderson’s neat flick from Pablo Zabaleta’s cross may have had a whiff of offside about it but when Andriy Yarmolenko’s shot looped in off Victor Lindelof just before half-time, few could begrudge the Hammers a two-goal lead. Marcus Rashford’s introduction MARCO SILVA says hard yards on the training ground are just as important to Gylfi Sigurdsson as his silky skills
Sigurdsson’s precise finishes helped win this game handsomely.
But his manager said: “Football today is not just about quality. You need to work hard to achieve something even when the things didn’t go your way, you have to keep working. Gylfi does that. He is an incredible example in our dressing room.”
Silva is known for pushing his players beyond usual conventions, demanding more. The results had not been evident, with his side struggling to adapt to a new style.
But finally in the second half against Fulham it all clicked, channelled into an energy and aggression that was too much for the shell-shocked visitors, who had controlled the first half.
Fulham should have been ahead when Ryan Sessegnon smashed the ball against the bar
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when it looked easier to score. That woke Everton up, with Sigurdsson missing a penalty but responding with two fine goals while Cenk Tosun was also on target.
“It could have gone either way for me mentally when I missed the penalty,” he said. “I could have crumbled. When I was a bit younger I think I would have gone into my shell.
“But this was fantastic. We all know the season we had last year was a strange one – a few managers – and the performances were nowhere near good enough. The whole squad feels different now.”
Fulham manager Slavisa Jokanovic said: “We must understand where we are and that we could pay a really expensive price if we don’t adapt to this league. We need to be brave, more consistent and learn fast.”